Building Process Efficiency Within The Construction Industry

On Tuesday of last week, we co-hosted a webinar with the PEX Network and James Morgan, IT Manager of the A14 Project. During this webinar we discussed how the A14 IDT (Integrated Delivery Team) brought complicated paper-based processes such as permission to dig, site visit request forms and labor requests online. This was achieved by implementing a no code Process Automation technology platform, into what is one of the largest road construction projects running in the UK.

Putting into Perspective

To understand the scale of this initiative, the A14 is a 31 kilometer stretch of new road being built between Cambridge and Huntingdon at an estimated cost of £1.5 billion. This is a joint venture has saw several large construction companies come together with Highways England to deliver.

Their key pain points were:

• excessive paperwork
• lost documents
• distributed workforce
• logistical challenges
• poor governance

Interestingly, their number one reason for choosing the appropriate technology platform to solve these pain points was no code. Of course, costs play a factor – they always do – but the ability for their project teams to be empowered to build their own ‘process templates’ for one joint venture, to then lift and deploy them into other projects was a huge benefit.

Addressing the Pain Points

So how did the A14 approach the implementation? They identified a key organizational specific process that was a real pain point for the project at that time – Permission to Dig. This process is typically an approval request procedure that involves downloading a document, filling it in, and sharing it with the team, however with FlowForma Process Automation this is now an automated and seamless electronic process - cutting out paper and saving time for employees across the site.

They then built a proof-of-concept, demonstrated this to the business and then built the process to go live. The wider organization quickly saw the benefits of this but then came all the new process project requests!  A key issue for James and the team then was prioritizing the process automation projects. They established a small cross-functional team across the business to agree priorities.

They then set out a number of criteria to measure each of these requests (e.g. potential Return on Investment / effort to build etc.) and then went from there. They also trained up other ‘superuser’ staff within the wider business to empower them to support the building of the processes, with IT providing the training and guardrails.

This is an approach we hear consistently with our most successful clients. ‘Land and Expand’ with your process automation projects and then empower the people who know the processes the best, while providing the right support structures.

Further Insight

Interested in learning more about the A14 story? You can view a recording of this webinar on demand or alternatively, you can download our case study to gain a more in-depth insight.

Why not take a free 30 day trial of our process automation tool and find out how you too can also reap the benefits of process digitization, resulting in increased productivity and efficiency.